Carboxylic esters are highly important chemical intermediates that have a wide range of industrial uses, from pharmaceuticals to polymers. However, they typically require expensive synthetic processes that include long reaction times, harsh reaction conditions, and produce large amounts of by-products. Gold nanoparticles have demonstrated exceptional activity and selectivity towards catalyzing oxidative esterification of alcohols and are able to produce esters under benign conditions, limiting reaction time and minimizing by-products, but the catalytic dehydrogenation of the alcohol to form aldehyde remains the rate limiting step for the overall reaction. A tandem, one-pot catalytic system employing alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme and gold nanoparticles supported on mesoporous silica has been proposed as a means of producing carboxylic esters using only molecular oxygen as the oxidant, aqueous solvents, and room temperature reaction conditions. By using alcohol dehydrogenase as a co-catalyst, alcohol is oxidized to aldehyde efficiently at room temperature, thus improving the rate limiting step. This one-pot reaction produced ester yields of up to 26.1%, a 33% improvement upon previously reported methods with more severe reaction conditions. This project aims to develop a cascade type reaction for the oxidation of allyl alcohol to allyl acrylate ester by immobilizing both the biocatalyst and inorganic nanoparticle catalysts within a mesoporous silica support material, and to optimize the reaction system for increasing carboxylic ester yields, exploring factors that affect the activity and loading of immobilized catalysts.

Incorporating enzyme and metal nanoparticle catalysts on mesoporous silica supports for tandem reactions

249th National Meeting (2015)

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